DENMARK – Leading manufacturer of high-performance films, Südpack has partnered with Dairy firm Arla on a new method to recycle plastic waste, giving a new life to packaging that otherwise would have been sent to the incinerator.
At its Rødkærsbro dairy in Denmark, where Arla produces mozzarella, the company uses a specially designed plastic film to mature the cheese over two weeks.
The two companies are now planning to use the ‘pyrolysis’ recycling process to keep the plastic film looped within the recycling process, rather than simply sending the used pack to be incinerated.
The pyrolysis process converts plastic waste into oil by exposing it to very high temperatures in a controlled environment.
Arla Foods lead packaging development manager Grane Maaløe said: “Instead of sending our plastic films to incineration, resulting in a one-off energy gain, we recycle them and use the recycled material to create new packaging thus reducing the carbon footprint as well as the need for virgin fossil feedstock.
“It might sound obvious but in the complex world of recycling this is an exciting step in our journey towards fully circular packaging.”
To implement and achieve this plan, the German manufacturer is currently conducting a large-scale test using the pyrolysis process to transform around 80 tonnes of plastic waste into new packaging annually.
The latest move is part of Arla’s strategy to enhance circularity by eliminating virgin fossil plastic use.
Südpack business unit manager Dirk Hardow added: “Utilizing the processing capabilities at our plant in Germany, we can ensure that the films produced for Arla’s cheese-maturing purposes do not exit the loop but instead are recycled into new packaging.
“A tonne of mixed plastic does not equal a tonne of new packaging, but it does reduce the need for virgin plastic, and it paves the way for increased investing in this infrastructure going forward.”
According to a survey carried out by packaging company Amcor in February, 22% of European consumers value recyclability in their cheese packaging, although some reported that they found it inconvenient or impossible to recycle the solutions at end of life.
Respondents that do not recycle their packaging gave a variety of reasons for doing so, with a quarter of the total number of consumers asked stating that separating and cleaning their packaging for recycling was too inconvenient.
Thirty-seven percent reported that they did not know how to recycle, while 28% do not have access to a local recycling stream.
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